Pumpkin in the vegetable dryer. Candied pumpkin: natural sweets at home

Is it possible to dry a pumpkin for the winter at home? Naturally, this is possible and a lot of good depending on the application of the finished product. Using home appliances and improvised means, it is possible to make a dried billet qualitatively and relatively quickly, while saving most useful substances.

What is the benefit or harm to the body from dried pumpkin?

From positive properties it is possible to highlight the richness of B, E and PP vitamins, the presence of fiber, pectin substances, sugars, carotene, ascorbic acid and minerals such as magnesium, iron, sodium, potassium and calcium.

Thanks to them, a person receives essential micro and macro elements, improves the state of memory, normalizes functioning gastrointestinal tract(especially with colitis or enteritis), strengthens hair and rejuvenates the skin. Iron also improves mood, helps calm your nerves and deal with stress after a tiring day.

Extremely useful pumpkin will be for patients with insufficient blood sugar. It is potassium that is responsible for the density of the walls of blood vessels and optimal blood pressure. With regular use of pumpkin, excess bile, mucus and cholesterol are excreted, and the body receives the necessary energy supply for the whole day. If you are observed sleep difficulties, try to eat some dried pumpkin every day.

Sufficient Content fluorine together with iron It can strengthen the human muscle and bone tissue, and in some cases help in accelerating bone fusion after fractures. Finally, it's great stimulation immune system and protection against caries.

Costs abstain from pumpkin in your diet if you have serious problems with acid-base balance or if you suffer from diabetes.

At low acidity pumpkin gastric juice will only aggravate the situation, depriving you of alkali and exacerbating peptic ulcers like gastritis. In this plan don't overeat pumpkin seeds, due to high content salicylic acid.

How many calories are in dried pumpkin? Due to the evaporated moisture, the concentration of sugar in the vegetable increases along with its calories. The standard calorie content of fresh pumpkin is approximately 28 kcal per 100 grams of vegetable. As a result of drying, we get 68 kcal for the same amount of product.

Variety selection

What varieties of pumpkin are best for drying for the winter?

Prioritize first table and muscat rather than forage varieties.

by the most the best option considered hard, late ripening pumpkins. From winter pumpkin can be distinguished varieties "Canteen sweet", "Winter sweet", "Spaghetti", "Buttercap" and "Butternut", as well as "Blue Hubbard".

From decorative varieties, you can dry varieties such as Legendaria and Cucurbita. Early maturing varieties like Acorn squash will also work, but will take much longer to dry than other varieties.

Suitable for drying are only ripe, whole fruits, without visible or hidden damage, suspicious plaque and stains. About that, you can find out from our article.

Choose only those pumpkins that, after harvesting the tail was saved- this is a guarantor of moisture conservation and pumpkin protection from harmful microbes getting inside the fruit.

Preparation

How to dry pumpkin for food? First of all, carefully inspect the harvested crop, sort by size and maturity. Unfit for food, spoiled or unripe pumpkins should be thrown away.

Then rinse each pumpkin in running water and let it dry for a couple of hours paper towel. The stalk, flowers and dark spots are cut out, provided that under the skin the pulp remained intact.

Then came the turn pitting- cut the fruit exactly in the middle and cut out the fibrous core along with the seeds. After that, it remains only to cut the pumpkin into equal slices to the floor or one and a half centimeters thick. In addition, good much faster it turns out dried pumpkin, if you first cut it into small cubes.

Like most fruits and vegetables, squash may need to retain its bright orange hue as it can darken significantly after drying. For this, it is carried out blanching in boiling water (no longer than 2 minutes).

Another method of disinfecting future drying from harmful diseases and insects is saline treatment.

In some situations, the pumpkin should be well steamed before drying.

This stage is especially good for drying pumpkins in Russian oven– after that the product turns out to be dense, elastic, completely preserving all taste qualities fresh pumpkin.

Household appliances and their modes

How to dry pumpkin? Almost all Appliances for drying vegetables equally great for drying pumpkins. It could be gas or electric oven, electric dryer, convection grill, ordinary Russian stove.

Dry pumpkin and outdoors , but it is a very time-consuming and time-consuming process. Any type of drying requires periodic supervision.

At what temperature should pumpkin be dried? Temperature regime can vary greatly depending on the cooking method, the condition of the pumpkin, the thickness of the pieces and the power of your units. It is generally advised to dry the pumpkin at an average temperature of + 50-85 ° С.

How to determine readiness? Feel the pumpkin pieces - they should be a little soft and pliable, but not so much that they stick to your fingers. The taste of the pumpkin is sweetish, and with prolonged chewing it seems to melt in the mouth. Sometimes dried pumpkin is compared with dried candied fruits.

If the pieces are too wet and sticky, then not all the moisture has come out of the product and you will need to leave them finish drying a couple more hours.

How to dry a pumpkin in the oven? You can learn how to cook candied pumpkin in the oven from this video:

Storage

How to store dried pumpkins? The ideal storage location should be dry and cool(+9-12°C), with air humidity not more than 60%. You can store the pumpkin in a tightly closed container like airtight containers. The bottom and the pumpkins themselves are covered with dry parchment paper.

Step by step instructions

How to dry pumpkin in the oven? Take advantage well-sharpened knife to clean the washed and dried pumpkin from the dense skin and stalk.

The seeds are also carefully removed. Then cut the vegetable into slices that are completely equal in length, in thickness no more than 1 cm.

Boil water in a suitably sized pot, salt it first, and prepare a deep bowl of ice water nearby.

Within 1-2 minutes boil pumpkin pieces, then fish them out with a slotted spoon and lower them for the same time to cool in cold water.

Prepare baking sheets for several or one batch of pumpkins, carefully preheat the oven to + 55-65 ° C. Then in one layer, leaving free space between the pieces, lay out all the blanks.

Oven needed leave ajar to release the exit for the evaporated moisture. For the first 4-5 hours, cook the pumpkin at the initial temperature, and in the final 2-3 hours, increase it to + 70-85 ° C.

How to dry pumpkin electric dryer? To dry a pumpkin in a dryer, the vegetable is processed in the same way as for cooking in an electric or gas oven. First, it is washed and cut in a way convenient for you.

The best solution would be to cut into small cubes, which, when dried, do not fall through the grate of the dryer.

Once the finished pieces have been sterilized and dried on a towel or sieve, you can proceed to cooking. On mesh vegetable drying trays, lay out all the pieces, leaving a small the space between them.

Set to medium setting, leaving the lid ajar, and dry the product 3-4 hours, stirring the pieces occasionally to prevent them from sticking to the wire rack. As soon as all the pieces have decreased by about 1.5-2 times, this signals readiness.

You can learn how to dry a pumpkin in an electric vegetable dryer from the video:

Whole drying features

How to dry a whole pumpkin? Whole it will turn out to dry mainly decorative varieties. They are small, it is easy to cut out the core with seeds from them. First, the pumpkins are washed, then dried for about a week in a dry, dark room until the peel is completely hardened.

Next almost six months pumpkins should be dried in a well-ventilated, dry place, without touching each other and the walls.

It is better to put a wooden pallet under the pumpkins with a lattice of thin boards so that air circulates freely.

Turn over every few days and check the fruit, removing rotten specimens.

Recipes

Some recipes indicate the need blanch pieces of pumpkin not in salted, but in sweetish water. This will help bring out the natural taste of the product. To do this, in a small saucepan boiled water diluted 2-3 tablespoons Sahara, after which the pumpkin is boiled in it for no longer than two minutes.

To get more sweet pumpkin, dilute 3-4 tablespoons of sugar in 1 liter of water and boil in them before drying slices or cubes of pumpkin for about 4-5 minutes.

With proper observance of all points for processing and drying, you will definitely succeed quality and nutritional product which will last for about a year.

Pick the right variety that won't take long to cook, and don't forget disinfect pumpkin from bacteria.

Pumpkin has many advantages in dried form over fresh vegetable: she becomes more appetizing and sweeter, stored for an order of magnitude longer and saves space.

Dried pumpkin: honey and lemon chips recipe in this video:

Pumpkin chips - photo:

Read on our website.

Composition and benefits

What is useful dried pumpkin? Pumpkin - natural vitamin and mineral complex. The fruit is considered a champion among other fruits in terms of its content gland. In addition to iron, the composition of the product includes:

• beta carotene;
• cellulose;
• vitamins - C, E, B1, B2, PP;
• macro- and microelements - potassium, calcium, copper, magnesium, cobalt, fluorine, silicon, zinc.

Vitamin E and zinc salts, which pumpkin is especially rich in, help prevent premature aging of the body.

pumpkin is a product dietary. Thanks to minimum content in it coarse fiber and acids, the vegetable is acceptable for consumption by people with inflammatory diseases organs of the digestive system.

Pumpkin brings great benefits to people with iron deficiency anemia, as it contains a mineral complex that takes part in the process of hematopoiesis. Regular use dried pumpkin renders positive influence on liver.

The pumpkin itself is a product low calorie, and when dried without adding sugar, the calorie content is 28 kcal / 100 g. However, if the pumpkin is dried, keeping and blanching in sugar, its calorie content increases to 110 kcal / 100 g.

Read about it in our article.

Basic Rules

How to dry a pumpkin at home? All varieties of pumpkin are suitable for drying. About that, you can find out from our article. Before you start harvesting vegetables, need to prepare:

After spending preparations, the pumpkin can be dried.

Ways

Usually, the drying process takes place outdoors or in an oven or electric dryer. About that, you can learn from our other article.

On air

For drying in air, prepared pieces must be laid out on sieves in a place with good ventilation where they will not be exposed to direct sunlight.

A few days later the pieces must be mixed and leave for another 2 days. After that, you can take it out into the sun, leaving the pumpkin in such conditions for 2 days. Usually air drying lasts 5-7 days.

If the pumpkin at the preparation stage is chopped not into cubes, but, for example, stripes, then they can be dried by hanging on a nylon thread.

You can learn how to dry a pumpkin right in your kitchen from the video:

In the oven

The pumpkin harvesting process is faster if it is produced in the oven. To do this, the prepared product is scattered on a baking sheet in 1 layer and placed in an oven preheated up to 80-85 degrees for half an hour.

How to make dried pumpkin in the oven sweet? You can learn how to cook dried pumpkin in the oven with sugar from the video.

Wash the pumpkin well with water on the outside and cut it in half lengthwise with a sharp knife, after cutting off the pumpkin tail. Using a spoon, take out the contents of the pumpkin - seeds and fibers.

Never throw away pumpkin seeds and pumpkin tail. Seeds can be dried, fried and chewed at your leisure. And an infusion of pumpkin tail - excellent tool from toothache, tested on myself.

Remove the thick skin from the pumpkin. The peel of a ripe fruit is usually like wood, and cleaning is not an easy process. To do this, place a half of the pumpkin on a cutting board cut down, strengthen it so that it does not slide on the table. With a vegetable cutter or sharp knife clean by removing small pieces peel. Peeled flesh cut into a thickness of about 5 millimeters.

Put the pumpkin slices in a thick-walled cup or cauldron, sprinkled with sugar, and leave for 5-6 hours. Sugar calculation: for 1 kilogram of peeled pumpkin - 300 grams of sugar.

While the pumpkin slices are standing, the juice will stand out from it, and the sugar will almost completely melt.

Kazanka with slices in own juice to put on slow fire, bring to a boil, and after boiling for 2 minutes, remove from heat and leave for at least 6 hours.

During this time, the pumpkin will cool down, soak and become softer. Return the cup (or cauldron) with pieces of pumpkin to the fire, add required amount citric acid, bring to a boil, boil for 2 minutes and turn off.

Usually 2 boils are enough. Focus on the pumpkin: it should not turn into a puree, it remains soft and at the same time keeps its shape. If the pumpkin remains firm, repeat the procedure a third time.

Drain the syrup. It is convenient to do this by carefully discarding future candied fruits and a colander so that the syrup is well stacked.

Do not spill under any circumstances pumpkin syrup. It can be added to compote, used as an impregnation for pies and cakes, etc.

We spread the boiled slices freely on the grate of the electric dryer and dry for about 5 hours, preferably changing the grates in places, then the candied fruits will dry at the same time. Drying time depends on the type of pumpkin, its juiciness, the size of candied fruits, the power of the electric dryer, etc.,

If you do not have an electric dryer, then dry candied pumpkin Can naturally in a dry place: put candied fruits on parchment (cloth), when dry on one side, turn over. It will take several days. You can also dry candied fruits in the oven at the lowest temperature.

Remove appetizing coffees from the grate of the electric dryer. They should remain elastic, soft inside, and outside still a little sticky, transparent. In no case should you overdry candied fruits.

Our experience in the preparation of candied fruits with Ezidri dryers.

We took 10 kg of pumpkin. Removed skins, seeds and pulp.

Happened:

7.1 kg (71%) - peeled pumpkin
2.9 kg (29%) - waste.

Cut with a knife into pieces, which were crushed into small cubes through. Peeled 2 lemons and squeezed the juice out of it.

1.5 cups of water were poured into a 5-liter pan and 1.5 kg of sugar were added, poured lemon juice. Brought to a boil. Pour pumpkin into the pan and bring to a boil again. Using a slotted spoon, they pulled the pumpkin out of the pan. The pumpkin absorbed some of the sugar and gave some of the juice. There is more liquid in the pan, and the concentration of sugar has decreased. Therefore, before loading following games, we poured out part of the liquid, and added 200-300 grams of sugar to the rest.

They put the cooled pumpkin on trays and turned on the dryer.

The pumpkin was dried for 17 hours at a temperature of + 50°C. It turned out 1 kg 400 grams of soft and tasty candied pumpkin.

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The pumpkin has long been a symbol of Halloween. Perhaps this is due to the fact that there was nowhere to put the rough peel and it is convenient to cut a scarecrow out of it, or maybe because the pumpkin is a symbol of something angry, but stupid. Everyone remembers well the fairy tale from childhood about Cinderella, whom the Fairy Godmother made a luxurious pumpkin carriage. In any case - the pumpkin has always been a subject that folklore has curled around. different peoples peace.

This huge berry in history was used almost completely. often used as dishes by many peoples of the world. The Aztecs made dishes from pumpkin flowers, they ate pumpkin stalks. Pumpkin seeds are still very popular and are sold in almost every supermarket. The Indians used the dried fruit to make mate tea. And it is still considered national drink exactly in that form.

Pumpkin - very useful berry. She is well suited for diet food. The calorie content is quite low, but the amount of microelements just rolls over. It contains all the B vitamins, vitamin C, PP and E. Pumpkin is rich in potassium, which makes it useful for people with cardiovascular diseases.

You can cook a lot of dishes from pumpkin: cereals, juices, soups, pumpkin dessert is considered especially tasty and one more thing - candied fruits. And if you are going to cook candied pumpkin, then you have come to the right place! Below we will tell you about how to choose the right pumpkin for candied fruits, about the benefits of candied fruits and outline short recipes cooking.

How to choose the right pumpkin for candied fruits

The process of choosing a pumpkin must be taken seriously so as not to miscalculate with the result, because not all types are well suited for candied fruit.

There are three main types of pumpkins you can find:

1) nutmeg pumpkin;
2) large-fruited pumpkin;
3) hard-skinned pumpkin.

In order to cook candied fruits at home, you are best suited butternut squash. Its size is not so large and the weight is from 1 to 5 kilograms.

The flesh is very tender and resembles the taste of a pear. The crust is easily peeled off, which gives it an additional advantage.

When choosing a pumpkin, follow the basic rule: the pumpkin should be heavier than it looks. It is also better to choose a smaller berry, as its taste is brighter, and there are much fewer unpleasant fibers. Besides, big pumpkins cause inconvenience during transportation.

Examine the skin carefully. It should be smooth and firm, without dark spots from blows. Look at the stripes on the berry. They should be straight, sinuous - a sign of the use of nitrates. A good indicator of ripeness is the tail of the pumpkin. It should be dry, which indicates the maturity of the fetus.

You bought good pumpkin and now you want to make candied fruits from it. Now it's time to evaluate the pulp. It should be elastic and fleshy. The color of the pulp should be orange. At the same time, than richer color the better the taste of the pumpkin.

If you got just such a pumpkin, which is described above, then we can congratulate you: now you will get a healthy and tasty dish!

If you want to make candied fruits, you will need good equipment. For this, the Isidri fruit and vegetable dryer is well suited. Its technical characteristics are significantly superior to analogues and speed up the preparation of candied fruits. And, of course, cooking candied fruit in artisanal conditions on the balcony will not replace a dish cooked in a device such as the Ezidri dryer.

The Isidri dryer will help you not only prepare healthy and delicious candied fruit from a pumpkin, but also to make preparations for the winter, which makes it indispensable in the household! But back to our candied fruits.

Candied Pumpkin Recipes

A recipe that has been tested for several generations will help you prepare candied pumpkin. For this you need only 4 ingredients:

1) Pumpkin (1 kg.)
2) Sugar (800 gr.)
3) Citric acid (5 gr.)
4) Cinnamon or other flavoring to taste.

First of all, thoroughly wash the pumpkin, peel it and remove all the seeds from the pulp. After that, cut the pulp into cubes or rectangular pieces. Now sprinkle the resulting pieces with 200 g of sugar and refrigerate. Wait for the juice!

After the appearance of the juice, you need to put the resulting pieces on a slow fire and wait for the boil. Now you need to drain the juice and cool the resulting dish. Save one glass of juice! It is needed now in order to pour all the remaining sugar, add citric acid, a little cinnamon and cook over low heat until the ingredients are completely dissolved. Pour the hot syrup over the pumpkin pieces and boil again until the pieces become transparent and the syrup thickens to the consistency of honey.

The resulting transparent pieces must be rolled in powdered sugar, cinnamon with sugar or other flavoring to taste. The resulting candied fruits can be dried a little or immediately served on the table.
The remaining syrup is quite usable. It can be used as regular jam or preserve to winter evenings receive useful material, which are usually only available in summer and autumn.

The second recipe for candied fruits is a little more refined, which makes them no less tasty.

For this recipe you will need 8 ingredients and 8 steps.

Ingredients:

1) Sugar (700 gr.)
2) Water (1 tbsp.)
3) Pumpkin pulp (2 kg.)
4) Oranges (2 pcs.)
5) Vanillin
6) Cinnamon
7) Powdered sugar
8) Carnation.

Actions:

1) Wash the pumpkin, peel it, remove the seeds from the pulp, cut into small slices. Peel oranges and divide into slices.
2) Pour water into a saucepan and add sugar. Cook over low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and the consistency is uniform.
3)Dip in hot syrup slices of pumpkin pulp and orange slices. Cook for about 7 minutes over low heat.
4) Now you can remove the mixture from the heat and leave it to cool completely. Now you need to repeat the cooking process twice more with an interval of about 8 hours.
5) Now we select transparent pumpkin slices from syrup, separate from orange slices.
6) After that, you need to dry the future candied fruits in a dryer for vegetables and fruits or in an oven at a low temperature for about 5 hours.
7) Sprinkle dried pumpkin slices with a mixture of powdered sugar, vanilla and cinnamon (add cloves to taste)
8) Store candied fruit at room temperature in a dry jar.

Candied fruits can be used as a dessert, or can be added to semolina or oatmeal. You can also decorate the cake with candied fruits. home cooking. Crushed candied fruits can be an excellent filling for homemade pies. The remaining syrup can be used as sweet sauce, as well as for cooking kissels and compotes.

The benefits of candied fruit

Candied fruits are distinguished by their ability to preserve for a long time beneficial features vegetables and fruits from which they are made, in addition, sugar, which is one of the main components of candied fruit, gives energy and energy for the whole day, which will become good addition to "morning" cereals: semolina or oatmeal.

For the most part, candied pumpkin has retained all the useful substances of pumpkin, and these are all the B vitamins that are good for the gastrointestinal tract, as well as the rare vitamin B3, which is famous for helping in the absorption of other trace elements. They contain vitamin C, which is indispensable in helping your immune system, as well as vitamin A, which our skin needs, especially in spring, when hypovitaminosis begins in the body. Candied pumpkin is an excellent remedy for combating asthenia, apathy and stress, as they are rich in iron. Vitamin E, which is designed to keep our youth also in large quantities found in candied pumpkin.

Imagine that guests came to you, and you put a large plate of candied fruits on the table. This will surely surprise all the guests, because home-made candied fruits, and even pumpkins, are a rarity in our time, characterizing the hostess only on the positive side. Cooking candied fruits is not so easy, but for those who do not know how it is done, candied fruits are generally the work of a large machine and they are sold only in a supermarket, so home-made candied fruits can also become a source of pride for the hostess. Well-cooked candied fruits are a real culinary achievement.

We are accustomed to always praise the food prepared by the hostess when visiting. This is a courtesy gesture. But your guests and household members will praise your candied fruits not only as a sign of respect for your work, but also in connection with the excellent exquisite taste which cannot be found anywhere else.

And when in the evening you sit with a cup of tea and have a conversation with family or friends, it will be so great to replace the usual sweets with homemade candied fruits. In any case, candied fruits prepared at home are what will give you joy in your soul and health in your body!

More and more people are striving for healthy lifestyle life, try to cook food from natural products, even sweets adored by children.

They replace store-bought sweets stuffed with preservatives with simple safe treats, for example, learning how to dry candied pumpkin with lemon. From sweetened fruit pieces with sunny orange pulp, surprisingly tasty and healthy “sweets” are obtained that are liked by both children and adults.

Preparation of pumpkin pulp for the preparation of candied fruits

The process of preparing candied pumpkin takes a lot of time, but the result is always pleasing: first, the pumpkin must be boiled in sweet syrup, and then dried in an electric dryer or oven.

Before drying the pumpkin and making candied fruits, we will prepare the fruits themselves, knowing that from a kilogram pumpkin pulp, 1.5 cups granulated sugar and one large lemon with thin skin, you get no more than 300 grams of dried treats.

How to prepare a pumpkin for drying

• Wash the pumpkin and remove the skin.
• We take out the seeds without throwing away the pulp in which they were located: with it, candied pumpkins are much tastier and healthier.
• We cut the fruit so that the pieces are not too small, thin or flat, it is better if they are elongated rectangles 0.7-0.8 cm thick. Thin and small cuts will turn into a product as hard as a sole.
• We pour boiling water over the lemon and cut it into thin plastics: it will not be needed when drying.
• Put a layer of pumpkin bars in enamel pan and cover with a layer of lemon slices. Sprinkle evenly with sugar.
• Repeat the layering until the pumpkin pulp runs out.
• Place the container over moderate heat and bring to a boil. During this time, the fruits will secrete juice to dissolve the sugar.
• We boil the food for 4 minutes and remove it from the stove: with longer cooking, you get pumpkin porridge. If the pieces turned out to be harsh, repeat the procedure with cooking.

We merge sugar syrup and throw the future candied fruits into a colander, remove the remnants of lemons and proceed to drying the product.

How to make candied pumpkin in drying (oven)

Some hostesses choose an oven for drying, others choose an electric dryer. The main thing is that the candied fruits turn out to be really dried, and not fried or baked, then they will retain more useful trace elements.

It is good if the oven has a convection mode with a fan that promotes quick drying. If it is not there, you will have to dry the pumpkin sticks with the door ajar.

Drying candied pumpkin

• We cover baking sheets (pallets) with baking paper or foil.
• We lay out the sticks free of syrup on them: they must be at a distance from each other, otherwise they will not dry out.
• We turn on the oven (electric dryer) at 50 - 60 degrees and place the future candied pumpkin there. If you use an oven without convection, keep the door slightly ajar to let moisture out, and if with convection, start this mode.
• Dry the treat for 8-12 hours: finished product becomes reddish and soft-cured.

Using the tip of a knife, transfer the candied fruits to a plate and leave to cool. If the unremoved part has had time to harden and stick to the paper, heat the baking sheet in the oven (dryer) and complete the process when the sugar melts.

Now it’s clear how to dry candied pumpkins - healthy treat for children and adults. It remains to quickly roll them in powdered sugar so that they no longer stick to your hands or to the plate. As for storage, it is unlikely that such sweetness will be preserved for a long time, but it is better to keep it in cool place otherwise it will melt again.